Film Categories: Race + Ethnicity

  • Girl Cleans Sink

    A lonely couple meet in a Laundromat, where their clumsy attempt at a sexual liaison leads to revelations, embarrassments, and a little bit of compassion. “Boundary-pusher, CBC radio host and still the coolest VJ MuchMusic has ever had, Sook-Yin Lee directs the surprising and wry ‘Girl Cleans Sink.’ This 10-minute gem stars Pretty, Porky and Pissed Off member Lisa Ayuso as a dyke with a gun who decides to give a guy a try before offing herself. The delightfully deadpan performances of Ayuso and her co-star (Jeremy Finkelstein) lend the film an off-kilter charm that feels refreshingly natural.” – Extra…

  • Restless Spirits

    In this lively portrait, rowdy ropin’ granny Toni Savoie-German finds Zen in the art of Rodeo. Toni, of Micmac and French heritage, has always had a passion for horses and ridiing. Now in her late 50s, she is on the rodeo circuit as a calf-roper. Although the rodeo world is a competitive one, it is not all about the medals. Rather, Toni is searching for something more meaningful – enlightenment and community. Rural landscapes and horses form the backdrop to this quest. In Rodeo, Toni discovers what we all want in life – peace and a sense of belonging.

  • Mexican Refugee (Mexicano Refugiado)

    “Mexican Refugee” humanizes emigration, immigration and the political asylum experience. It is essential viewing for anyone interested in social justice and gay rights struggles in North America, particularly in Mexico. Five interwoven stories reveal the ironies between government policies, inadequate enforcement and international impunity for “unrecognised” human rights violations. Yet, with great determination and value for life itself, the individuals in this documentary inspire hope, perseverance and cultural survival across borders. Best Up and Coming Toronto Film or Video Maker Award, Inside Out Toronto Lesbian & Gay Film & Video Festival, 2005

  • Coming + Going

    A portrait of the energy of urban life in split-screen. “Coming + going” was shot on one roll of regular 8 film, with all editing and split-screen effects created in-camera. Selected screenings: Time Inside the Image [3], Foreman Art Gallery of Bishop’s University, Jan. 31-March 31, 2007; Anthology Film Archives, New York, NY, 2006; European Media Arts Festival, Osnabruck, 2006; Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival, 2005

  • Cairo Calling

    Ahmed’s tranquil life in Montreal goes into a tailspin when his meddling mother visits from Cairo with a single purpose in mind… Selected screenings: Out Takes Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, New Zealand, 2005; Toronto Worldwide Short Film Festival, 2005; Hamburg Lesbian & Gay Film & Video Festival, 2005, Pink Apple Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, Switzerland, 2005 Audience Award at the 2005 Fresno Gay & Lesbian Film Festival. Audience Award at the 2005 Montreal Lesbian & Gay Film Festival

  • nostalgia (april 2001 to present)

    “The picture of the world that’s presented to the public has only the remotest relation to reality…” – Noam Chomsky “In a colour fest of broken emulsions, the artist reconvenes a suite of feel good 50s adverts for a better life. A young boy on a bicycle, a blonde smiler on a tricycle, two men at a clothesline, the crisp border of neighborhood lawns appearing as if no one had ever set foot on them. The world is blank and the first line I lay across it is perfect, and then the second marks an intersection and the town is…

  • distance between here and there, the

    Traveling through an invented landscape… the space between here and there. “Battle grounds her travel films not so much in place as in time. ‘the distance between here and there’ is one of her most abstract, rigorous and beautiful engagements with duration… In Battle’s film, it is between here and there, the interval between two points, that marks the experience of travel. The film is able to powerfully evoke that indefinite liminal nowhere, the feeling of being dislocated and in movement.” – Janine Marchessault “An abstract film made by applying colour tape directly onto emulsion and exposing it to light.…

  • migration

    A late summer prairie storm as heard from above… someplace between this atmosphere and the next…

  • Bahar

    Bahar is a 52-minute documentary about a Turkish transsexual, who has lived through many periods of tumultuous times, each of these chapters a fragment of her life marked by a different name she has chosen to call herself after abandoning her original name of Mustafa: Ayla (Aura), Ülkü (Ideal) and Bahar (Spring). The film was shot in Turkey with interviews conducted around the time of Bahar’s much-desired facial surgery. Having a sex change operation is surprisingly easy in Turkey. But the bill a transsexual has to pay is to be cast away from an ordinary life and suffer from the…

  • The Passion of Rita Camilleri

    “The Passion of Rita Camilleri” is a 24- minute cinematic vision seen through a child’s eyes. Rita is eight years old, a Maltese Canadian and a Roman Catholic. She is able to see Jesus fly, her sister’s brassiere turn into wings, and a local mutt become a demonic beast. Lonely and insecure, she becomes even more lonely when her best friend Diane dies in a house fire. During and after the funeral, Rita is filled with awe and questions until Diane appears at her window as an angel. Rita is still alone but not as lonely. With the reassurance of…